Apple Building An Autonomous Car System

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, it’s described as “the mother of all A.I. projects.

For the first time, the Apple CEO elaborates on Apple’s car plans. The company isn’t building an Apple car, they’re building the software system to fuel self-driving cars.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in a June 5 interview on Bloomberg Television that amounted to his most detailed comments yet on Apple’s automotive plans.

“There is a major disruption looming there,” Cook said on Bloomberg Television, citing self-driving technology, electric vehicles and ride-hailing. “You’ve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame.”

“It’s a core technology that we view as very important.” He likened the effort to “the mother of all AI projects,” saying it’s “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”

In the Bloomberg interview, Cook describes the “three vectors of change” happening in the automotive world—electrification, ride sharing, and autonomy. Apple clearly wants to be part of this changing automotive landscape, but Cook isn’t committing to building a car.